Ok, so you bought a new computer, learned the basics, got
yourself a website and are ready for the bucks to come
rolling in. You did some advertising with the free classifieds,
listed your url in some directories and thought you were all
set. After you manually submitted to the major search
engines, you were sure the bucks were going to come
pouring in. You waited and waited but only about 50 people
visited your site and nobody bought anything. You see others
around you becoming successful, but your business is going
nowhere!
Let me tell you that you can make a lot of money with an
online business, but I think that one of the major things you
need to do for success is publish an ezine. With an ezine
you can keep in touch with your potential customers and you
can keep your site and products alive in their minds. But, to
publish a successful ezine you must provide good content,
not just a giant ad for your business. Have interesting, useful
and entertaining information included in your ezine. After you
have enough subscribers you can start accepting paid
advertising and add to your profits.
By publishing an ezine you can also earn your subscribers'
trust by building relationships and showing them that you
know what you are doing and talking about. They believe
what you say and have confidence in you and your business.
Starting an ezine is not as hard as you would think, although it
is a lot of work.
Step 1 Decide on your content and format. What kind of
things do you want to include in your ezine. There are the
standard disclaimers, contact information and subscribe-
unsubscribe info. Then you want to have a good article or
two, a section for ad swaps, resources, interesting facts,
tidbits, question and answer column, classifieds, reader
feedback, reader submissions, a little humor and fun, the list
is endless for good items to put in your ezine.
To help you get started:
http://www.e-zinez.com
http://www.ezineuniversity.com
http://www.homebiztools.com/enews.htm
To find good content for your ezine:
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
http://www.makingprofit.com/
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.the-best-list-site-in-the-world.com/
Step 2 Organize your first draft. Decide on your template
design, organize your content and put your first ezine
together. Move things around, make changes here and there
until you are satisfied with it. Send it to a few friends to get
their opinion. When you are satisfied with your ezine and
want to get started, it is now time to start promoting.
Step 3 Promotion. There are many ways to promote your
ezine including ad swaps, free ads, message boards,
discussion lists, announcement lists, email sigtag, paid ads,
article writing, ezine directories, and more.
Ad Swaps:
http://www.yoursalesoffice.com/EzineJointVentures.html
http://www.homebasedprofit.com/east/swaplists.shtml
Free Ads:
http:/ heslacks.com/webmaster/engines/classifiedfee.html
http://www.free-ezine-advertising.com/
Message Boards:
http://www.forumone.com
http://www.delphi.com
Discussion Lists:
mailto:pubsonly-subscribe@topica.com
mailto:Newbies911-subscribe@topica.com
Announcement Lists:
mailto:AAnnounce-subscribe@egroups.com
mailto:000-ALLAnnounce-subscribe@egroups.com
mailto:1stAnnounceHere-subscribe@egroups.com
mailto:linksnlists-subscribe@egroups.com
mailto:Advertise-Your-List-subscribe@egroups.com
mailto:Aannounce-subscribe@topica.com
mailto:ALLAnnounce-subscribe@egroups.com
mailto:getmoresubs-subscribe@egroups.com
Ezine Directories:
http://www.ezineseek.com
http://www.ezinesearch.com
http://www.ezineworld.com
http://www.cumuli.com/ezine/
http://www.ezine-news.com
http://www.bestezines.com
Step 4 After you have gotten a subscriber base started it is
now time to start distributing your ezine. You can do this
manually, use a paid or free listserver, or purchase software
to manage your list. I have my ezine at egroups and as of yet
haven't had any problems. Before you send your ezine out to
your list, always send it to yourself so you can check the
format and spelling and so on. Always save your back issue,
so when you start on your next one you can just remove the
content to be replaced and keep the rest. This will save a lot
of time.
Free Listservers:
http://www.egroups.com
http://www.globelists.com
http://www.milomail.com
http://www.listbot.com
http://www.coollist.com
Paid Listservers:
http://www.internetmatrix.com itan/default2.htm
http://www.talklist.com/
Listserver Software:
http://www.add2it.com/mailman-pro.shtml?JTD
http://www.softseek.com/Internet/EMail/ListManagement/R
eview26324index.html
Step 5 Keep promoting, providing good content, building
relationships with you readers, and putting out a good ezine
and your business will grow and you will profit!! This does
not happen overnight. You must be determined to succeed
and have passion for your work. You will be succeeding just
as the others around you were and you will no longer suffer
from Ezine Envy!!
About the Author
Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com
MyOwnEzine.com is a website, ezine and service which
provides the resources, tools, guidance and more to help
you start, publish and promote your own ezine. You can
contact Terri at mailto:ter02@newnorth.net Subscribe
at mailto:subscribe@myownezine.com or visit
http://www.myownezine.com for lots more info.